by Ali Olson
Once they were back in the house, Renee turned to him and gave him a devilish smile, and that was all he needed to put away those thoughts for another time. He would deal with all that later. For now, there was only one thing he wanted to think about.
He walked up close to her and placed one palm on the small of her back, pressing her against his body as his lips met hers. They had an entire day alone together, and he wasn’t going to waste it.
* * *
“I HAVE BEEN waiting for this moment,” Jeremiah said.
Renee gasped as his arm encircled her waist, pulling her tight against his body. She melted into his eyes as he leaned in, his soft kiss promising so much more.
Applause and cheers surrounded her, taking her attention away from the sinfully sexy man in front of her.
They were in the barn, standing under the decorated arch. Renee looked down. The white fabric of her dress glittered in the light.
Renee sat up in bed, groaning. This was very bad. Her mind replayed the dream, and the feeling it evoked wasn’t fear. It had been a happy dream, and that was what made her nervous.
She looked over at Jeremiah, able to just see him in the early dawn light. He was sleeping peacefully, and the sight of him made her blood rush with that insatiable desire she had felt since meeting him, despite the sexual escapades of the day before. But there was something else, too.
Her heart twisted in a tender way that made her want to jump out of the bed and get away as quickly as she could. She had a pretty good guess what that feeling was, and it was the exact feeling she didn’t want to have. Not here.
Panic rose in her throat as she pictured herself in Jessica’s shoes, living in a big country home in Texas, miles away from everyone and everything. Her dream job no more than a memory.
She couldn’t let that happen to her. She wasn’t going to be some Texas wife, whatever her feelings might be.
Suddenly antsy, she got out of bed and went to her suitcase lying open on the floor. Grabbing some clothes and her computer from her suitcase, she left the room and eased the bedroom door shut behind her.
Downstairs, she dressed and sat on the couch with her laptop. The best thing to do when her thoughts were jumbled like this was to work. It had gotten her through confusing and difficult times before; it would get her through this.
Renee opened the page she had begun to design and started her tweaks. She wished she had gotten Jessica’s article and the photo onto her computer before leaving so she could have them in place while working on the page, but she had noted the length of the article and had the picture imprinted in her mind, so she could create the mock-up without them.
If she wanted this to look good, it would take time. Luckily, time was what she had, and she desperately wanted to fill it with something other than thoughts about Jeremiah and a future with him that couldn’t possibly work.
She settled in, her eyes glued to the screen, and got down to business.
* * *
JEREMIAH BEGAN TO WAKE, but he felt so content and comfortable that he was in no hurry to get out of bed. With his eyes closed, he reached out to Renee to pull her closer. His hand only met empty space where he expected warm skin, though, and he opened his eyes. She wasn’t in bed, and based on the cool spot beside him, she had been gone for a while.
He rose and threw on some clothes, wondering where she had gone and what she could be doing. The thought of her cooking breakfast made him chuckle. If she was, he’d happily eat her toast, burned or not.
When he got downstairs, he found her in the living room, not the kitchen, and felt slightly relieved. If she was as bad at cooking as she claimed, it was better that way. He started running through his list of possible meal options, trying to decide which one she’d like the most. He loved the way she looked when she bit into something delicious.
As he walked up to her from behind the couch, he could see her laptop on her knees, a magazine page blossoming on the screen. She was absorbed in what she was doing and hadn’t seen him yet, so he stood for a minute and watched her work, adding lines and tiny details to the page that elevated it from a regular magazine page to an eye-catching design akin to a piece of art. It was still in an infancy stage, but he could see the final product shining through, and he was impressed.
His eyes shifted from studying the screen to the woman in front of it. Her hair was falling forward into her face, but she didn’t seem to notice. Her entire being seemed focused on what she was doing, absorbed in her work. He wondered if he’d be able to create a statue that would capture the drive and focus she exuded from every line of her form.
Finally, he walked up to her and knelt behind the couch, only inches from her. “You really have a talent,” he said.
She jumped, startled, and looked over at him. He gave her a smile, but it took her a couple of beats before she returned it, and his stomach turned unpleasantly. Something had changed since the night before. He didn’t know exactly why, but a feeling of foreboding washed over him.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, hoping to dispel the unpleasant thought.
She nodded and turned back to her screen, not looking at him. “Yeah, but I need to get a little more work done.”
“I’ll whip up some omelets,” he said, rising from the back of the couch.
“You don’t have to, but I can’t say no to that offer.”
Her words were pleasant, but she still wasn’t looking at him and her voice had the quality of someone reading from a script. He went into the kitchen and began working on breakfast while his mind tried to work through what might have changed since last night.
As he chopped, whisked and flipped, he managed to come up with a few theories, but nothing seemed to make sense, except that for some reason she’d decided to put more distance between them. It made his heart sink to think that she might be done with him, satisfied with her fling and ready to walk away.
His suspicions only grew when she came into the kitchen for breakfast. After politely thanking him for the meal, she said, “I should move back to Jessica and Aaron’s today. I need to help with the last few wedding items, and the rest of the guests will be starting to arrive.”
He chewed a bite, then swallowed. “What’s going on, Renee?” he asked.
He needed to know. She finally managed to look him in the eyes. “I just think this shouldn’t go any further. We’ve had our fun, but now I need to get back to reality. Finish my project for work and help Jessica.”
He considered arguing with her, but let it go for the moment. They ate in silence, and once she was done she pushed back from the table. “I’ll wash the dishes. Then will you take me back to Jessica’s?”
“Is that really what you want?”
She gave him a forced smile. “Well, I’m not the biggest fan of washing dishes, but it seems only fair,” she said.
He knew that move too well. He’d done it plenty of times, and he wasn’t about to let her off the hook.
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
She turned her back to him, as if she didn’t want him to see her face, and began running water over the dirty dishes. “I think it’s best for both of us if I get back to helping Jessica prepare for the wedding. It’s why I’m here, after all.”
Jeremiah opened his mouth to say something, but after a moment he closed it again. What was there to say? What she said was true. If she didn’t want anything more than a quick fling, it would be better for them to stop before he got in so deep he couldn’t get out again.
Not that he was by any means certain that hadn’t already happened.
He watched as she finished washing the dishes and left the kitchen to gather her things, avoiding his gaze the entire time. When she left the house with her suitcase in hand, he followed.
* * *
RENEE HATE
D EVERY second of the drive back to Jessica and Aaron’s, which was all the more reason to leave Jeremiah’s. She couldn’t risk losing the willpower needed to break things off with him, and the more time she spent around him, the worse it would be. Better to get it over with now.
She wasn’t sure if the drive felt like an eternity or far too short, but once they pulled up to the house, everything in her shouted to stay in the car, go back with Jeremiah and forget about all that other stuff.
She had to get out of that truck as fast as she could. Renee took off her seat belt and was about to open the door, but Jeremiah turned to her, the determination in his eyes pinning her in place. Renee willed him to just let her leave. No discussion, no explanation.
He put his hand on hers. “I want more than just this week, Renee,” he said.
Renee’s insides twisted painfully. She wanted to run away, but couldn’t.
“One week isn’t enough for me. I think this has a shot.”
He looked at her with such sincerity that her heart melted a little, but she forced it to freeze over. There was too much at stake. Her career, the city she loved, her life. She couldn’t let herself fall in love with this guy and lose all those things that were so important to her.
He seemed to be waiting for an answer. When she didn’t say anything, he asked, “Don’t you think we have something here?”
She pulled her hand out from under his and turned to the door so he wouldn’t see the hurt in her eyes, the lie on her lips. “No, I don’t.”
Before he could say anything else, she had the door open and was out in the brisk morning air. She made her way to the house as quickly as she could, praying he wouldn’t come after her before she could make it to the door. She wasn’t sure what she would say if he did.
Her resolve could only last so long against those coffee-colored eyes.
When she made it inside the house without his intervention, Renee told herself what she felt was relief, though she wasn’t quite sure she believed it. She took a deep breath to calm her roiling emotions, and hoped her face belied the truth festering underneath when Jessica appeared.
Clearly it didn’t, as her sister’s expression changed immediately from welcoming to worry. “What happened, Renee? Are you okay?”
Renee didn’t want to deceive her sister again. There had just been too many lies lately. But she couldn’t bring herself to explain the situation with Jeremiah, either. “I fell and hurt myself,” she said.
It wasn’t really a lie at all. Jessica looked at her with concern. “Are you okay?”
Renee said, “I will be,” hoping it was the truth.
Without another word, Jessica ushered Renee into the kitchen and got her a cup of tea. Renee sipped the hot liquid, trying to settle her feelings. Aaron walked in from outside, carrying her suitcase. “Jeremiah just left. He asked me to bring in your bag,” he said to Renee.
“He left without coming in? That’s weird,” Jessica said.
Aaron shrugged. “I know. I expected him to offer to stick around and help with everything today, but he said he was busy.”
Renee didn’t say anything, just took another swallow of her drink and tried to convince herself that it was good he left. It was over now.
She took one more swallow and grabbed her bag. “I’m going to get some work done before we get started on wedding stuff, if that’s okay,” she told them.
Jessica said, “That’s fine. The tent guys should be here in an hour or so. Once it’s up, we can get everything ready for the reception. You’ll have some time to work this afternoon, too, when Aaron and I head over to the airport. Cindy and Mom and Stew are flying in today.”
Renee remembered Jessica’s freak-out over the phone about Stew coming to the wedding. It was just a few days ago, but felt so much longer. At any rate, Jessica seemed to have accepted his presence at the wedding.
Renee gathered her suitcase, the camera and—with only a little reluctance on Jessica’s part—the article she planned to use in her spread design, then went up to her room and settled herself at the desk in the corner of the room, determined to get down to work.
She got everything she needed loaded onto her computer, then stared at the screen. She usually felt a level of excitement when she was putting the pieces together and perfecting her design, but she didn’t feel that at all. She felt...
Sad. That was the only word she could come up with to describe it.
Her work had always helped her get over any negative emotions, and she was sure it could now. She just needed to focus. She put her hands to the keyboard, telling herself to just get started already.
She began clicking through various icons, opening Jessica’s article and the picture she had taken. Her hands fell from the keyboard as she stared at the picture. It wasn’t the barn or the brilliant sky or any of a hundred other aspects of the photograph that caught her attention. It was Jeremiah.
The picture only showed him from the back as he helped Aaron slide open the large door, but it was enough to render her speechless. His mop of dark hair was messy in a shaggy-chic kind of look, and his shirt was slightly wrinkled, as if he’d been working all day doing manly things, but she knew the truth of those little details.
They were like that because Renee had been riding him up in the loft not long before the photo was taken.
God, he looked good.
She closed the laptop with a snap and stood. She just needed some air and a couple of minutes to get her head in order, and then she’d be fine.
Before she could examine the idea too closely, she was on her way out the door she had just entered minutes before.
She saw Jessica and Aaron sitting in the living room as she passed from the stairs to the front door, but she didn’t say anything and they didn’t try to follow her, which was a relief. She just needed to be alone.
Well, not alone. You need to be with Jeremiah.
She hushed the voice in her head, dismissing the thought. She did not need him. She didn’t need anyone. As long as she got this dream job, she would have everything she needed to be happy.
Yeah, right.
She had really started to hate that voice.
Renee walked as quickly as she could, trying to outrun it. It was only when she found the sun blocked by leaves that she realized she had walked into the shade of the trees behind the barn. She kept walking, breathing in the cool, wet air, until she heard the burble of a stream. It had to be the river she and Jeremiah had pretended to visit.
After a few more steps, she could see it. Shafts of light broke through the leafy ceiling and landed on the water, creating shining reflections on the surface. The spots where the water broke over rocks made it sound happy, as if the water was giggling.
A small smile touched Renee’s lips. She really did like the tiny waterfalls. At least that was one less lie she had on her conscience.
The sound of the water was soothing, and she walked along beside the stream until her fingers felt stiff from the cold morning air. When she finally broke through the trees once more, she saw a group of men setting up the tent where the wedding reception would be held. It was huge and pure white, with windows dotting the sides.
Jeremiah’s voice rose up in her mind. The circus fire was intense. Get it?
She chuckled, but wasn’t sure the emotion she was feeling could be called amusement. Before more thoughts of him could overwhelm her good sense, Renee blanked her mind and went to find Jessica. If anyone could keep her so busy that she didn’t have time to think of those coffee-colored eyes, that delicious body and adorable smile, it was Jessica.
Her sister was standing near the tent, watching as it grew to full height. Renee guessed Jessica was going over every inch of it with her eyes, looking for some tiny tear that might get caught by a gust of wind and somehow cause the entire thing t
o fall apart.
She pasted on a smile as she approached her sister. No sense in making her worry. “It’s a beautiful tent, Jessica. It looks like everything is going according to plan.”
Jessica nodded, but didn’t seem fully convinced, though Renee wasn’t sure if her sister was concerned about the wedding or about Renee.
Either way, Jessica said nothing and Renee didn’t press her to find out.
In short order, the tent was in place and the horde of workers had packed up and gone, leaving the large, empty structure behind. Renee turned to Jessica. “What’s first? Tables? Where are they?”
Jessica eyed her, as if she was suspicious. “Yes, but we can wait for Aaron, and he can call Jeremiah to see if he can help—”
“No!” Renee interrupted before realizing how odd it must seem. “I mean, we can lift a few tables without the guys. Strong, independent women and all that.”
The “few tables” ended up being ten huge round ones that had to weigh a hundred pounds each, along with a dozen rectangular ones that weren’t much lighter. Within fifteen minutes, both women were out of breath and sweating, despite the chilly morning air. Jessica and Renee dragged and rolled the tables until each one was in place.
Renee wished there were even more of them. Nothing like a little heavy lifting to stop the mind from wandering into forbidden territory.
The moment they were done, Jessica sat down on the ground, her face red, and she took a big breath. “Well that was fun.”
Renee dropped to the ground beside her. “It wasn’t that bad.”
Jessica didn’t answer, and they rested for a minute, looking around the tent. The circular tables were spread out over most of the space, waiting to become seating for the guests. Rectangular tables were relegated to the perimeter, where they would hold the cake, food and gifts. There was still so much to do before it would be ready, but Renee could picture how it would look, and it was beautiful.
Her heart ached a little and she felt a burning behind her eyes that couldn’t possibly be tears. She stood again and turned away from her sister. “What’s next? Chairs?”
